From late 1960's to early 1970's David Byron did a lot of session work mainly for a company called Avenue Recordings singing lead & backing vocals (it has been said that also other Uriah Heep members Mick Box & Paul Newton participated in these sessions as musicians but this has not been fully confirmed). These were cover versions of Top20 hits and were released on numerous EP's & LP's at the time. There are over hundred of tracks recorded during these sessions featuring David Byron on lead vocals but these records are extremely rare to find these days.

For 40 years these were available only on the original extremely rare vinyl records and tapes in circulation among fans but in 2012 Artistry Records have started releasing these on CD. So far there have been five different releases and the sixth is to be released soon. Besides this there's one compilation CD with various vocalists including five tracks sung by Byron. You can see more info on these releases at the Discography Sectionn.

These tracks have been surfaced in various formats so far from Avenue Recordings 
sessions and other sources with David Byron on vocals (original performers of songs in parenthesis):
All I Have To Do Is Dream (The Everly Brothers)
All Right Now (Free)
American Woman (The Guess Who)
Baby I Know (The Love Affair)
Baby Come Back (The Equals)
Back Home (England Word Cup Squad '70)
Bad Moon Rising (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Ballad Of John & Yoko (The Beatles)
Blackberry Way (The Move) 
Black Night (Deep Purple)
Behind A Painted Smile (The Isley Brothers)
Bet Yer Life I Do (Herman's Hermits)
The Boxer (Simon And Garfunkel)
Breakaway (Irma Thomas)
Breakfast On Pluto (Don Partridge)
Bring It On Home To Me (Sam Cooke/The Animals)
By The Way (The Tremeloes)
Call Me Number One (The Tremeloes)
Cold Turkey (John Lennon)
Come And Get It (Badfinger)
Curly (The Move)
Dizzy (Tommy Roe)
Do It Again (The Beach Boys)
D. W. Washburn (The Monkees)
Fire (The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown) 
Fox On The Run (Manfred Mann)
Games People Play (Joe South)
Get Back (The Beatles) 
Gimme Dat Ding (The Pipkins)
Give Peace A Chance (John Lennon)
Good Morning Freedom (Blue Mink) 
Green River (Creedence Clearwater Revival) 
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (The Hollies)
Heather Honey (Tommy Roe)
Hello I Love You (The Doors)
Hello Susie (Amen Corner)
Hello World (The Tremeloes)
Hitchin' A Ride (Vanity Fare)
Honky Tonk Women (The Rolling Stones)
Hurdy Gurdy Man (Donovan)
Hush, Not A Word To Mary (John Rowles)
I Ain't Got Time Anymore (Glass Bottle)
I Am A Rock (Simon And Garfunkel)
I Can’t Tell The Bottom From The Top (The Hollies)
Ice In The Sun (Status Quo)
I Hear You Knocking (Smiley Lewis)
I'm Gonna Make You Mine (Lou Christie)
Instant Karma (John Lennon)
In The Bad Bad Old Days (Before You Loved Me) (The Foundations)
In the Summertime (Mungo Jerry)
It Don't Come Easy (Ringo Starr)
It Mek (Desmond Dekker And The Aces)
It's All In The Game (The Four Tops)
Jumping Jack Flash (The Rolling Stones)
Just Like A Baby (Sly & the Family Stone)
Keep On (Bruce Channel)
Lady D'Arbanville (Cat Stevens)
The Last Walz (Engelbert Humperdinck)
Lay Lady Lay (Bob Dylan)
Lazy Sunday (Small Faces)
Let It Be (The Beatles)
Let's Work Together (Canned Heat)
Lola (The Kinks)
Long As I Can See The Light (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) (Edison Lighthouse)
Love Of The Common People (John Hurley)
Loving Things (Marmalade)
Mama Told Me Not To Come (Eric Burdon)
Man Of The World (Fleetwood Mac)
Me And My Life (The Tremeloes)
Melting Pot (Blue Mink) 
M’lady (Sly & The Family Stone)
Montego Bay (Bobby Bloom)
Mony Mony (Tommy James)
My Little Lady (The Tremeloes)
My Melanie Makes Me Smile (Tony Burrows)
My Sentimental Friend (Hermans Hermits)
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye (Steam)
Natural Born Boogie (Humble Pie)
Need Your Love So Bad (Little Willie John)
One More Dance (Harry Belafonte)
On The Road Again (Willie Nelson)
Pinball Wizard (The Who) 
Proud Mary (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Question (The Moody Blues)
Race With The Devil (Gun)
Ragamuffin Man (Manfred Mann)
Rainbow (Marmalade)
Rainbow Valley (Love Affair)
Red Balloon (The Dave Clark Five)
Reflections Of My Life (Marmalade)
Rollin' And Tumblin' (trad.)
Sittin' Here Wonderin' (Louisiana Red)
Snake In The Grass (The Temptations)
Something In The Air (Thunderclap Newman)
Something Is Happening (Herman's Hermits)
Son Of Hickory Holler’s Tramp (O. C. Smith)
Sorry Suzanne (The Hollies)
Soul Deep (The Box Tops)
Soul Sister Brown Sugar (Sam And Dave) 
Spirit In The Sky (Norman Greenbaum) 
Stop Her On Sight (Edwin Starr)
Sugar, Sugar (The Archies)
Tell Me What I Say (Ray Charles)
Too Busy Thinking About My Baby (Marvin Gaye)
Tracks Of My Tears (The Miracles)
Tracy (The Cuff Links)
Travellin' Band (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Two Little Boys (Harry Lauder)
United We Stand (Brotherhood Of Man)
Urban Spaceman (Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band)
U.S. Male (Jerry Reed)
Viva Bobby Joe (The Equals)
Wet Dream (Max Romeo)
What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) (Junior Walker & The All Stars)
When I'm Dead And Gone (Mcguinness Flint)
Where Do You Go To My Lovely (Peter Sarstedt)
Yellow River (Christie)
Yesterday Has Gone (P. J. Proby)
Yester You, Yester Me, Yesterday (Stevie Wonder)
You Can Get It If You Really Want (Desmond Dekker And The Aces)
Young Gifted And Black (Nina Simone)
Yummy Yummy Yummy (Ohio Express)

Byron also did the vocals among some other singers to two albums by a group called John Smith And The New Sound, both released in 1968. It is yet unclear exactly on what tracks Byron sings on these albums.

In 1971 David appeared on two LP's by John Schroeder:

You've Made Me So Very Happy

Witchi Tai To

Byron's voice can be heard on the following tracks:
25 Or 6 To 4, Spinning Wheel, You've Made Me So Very Happy (You've Made Me So Very Happy), Back In The USSR (original performer The Beatles), The Bird Has Flown, Wanna Thank You Girl & Witchi Tai To (Witchi Tai To)

Note! A double cd compilation called Soal Coaxing - The Many Moods Of John Schroeder was released in 2005 and it includes all tracks with David Byron from these two lp's except 'Wanna Thank You Girl'

These were all just for money making while Uriah Heep was starting their career. After Look At Yourself became the first succesfull album he quit the session work and concentrated only on Uriah Heep

Byron also was involved with several projects with Peter Lee Stirling (known later as Daniel Boone) who was also one of the vocalists at Avenue Records sessions.

After leaving Uriah Heep David sang backing vocals on several albums in the late 70's such as Ian Lloy'ds 'Goosebumps' and Peter Bliss' self titled album. He also produced Denny And The Jets single Shoo-Be-Doo and again worked with Daniel Boone on several projects.

Back to top